Bush Campaign Strategist, Gop Leader Lee Atwater

WASHINGTON — Lee Atwater, the most colorful and controversial political strategist of his generation and the architect of George Bush`s 1988 presidential election campaign, died Friday of cancer. He was 40.

``I am very saddened,`` Bush said at the White House. ``Barbara and I are heartsick about it, and our whole family is. . . . Lee practiced the art of politics with zeal and vigor.``

Mr. Atwater`s hardball style sparked controversy, some arguing that he pushed the limits of negative campaigning. But while his tactics often drew sharp criticism, they were overwhelmingly successful as Bush crushed his opponent, Democratic Gov. Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts, winning 40 states. In one postelection endorsement, Bush said Mr. Atwater`s critics went after him because ``he`s getting in their knickers.``

After the election, Bush elevated Mr. Atwater to the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, a post he held, despite declining health, until January, when he was replaced by Clayton Yeutter and given the honorary title of general chairman.

``Lee Atwater didn`t believe in playing defense and he didn`t believe in losing,`` Yeutter said Friday.

Yeutter`s Democratic counterpart, Ron Brown, spoke of the bravery shown by Mr. Atwater and his family in facing his 13-month illness. ``We can never let political battles or fights cause us to lose sight of the fullness of our lives,`` Brown said in a statement.

Mr. Atwater`s last public appearance was in February at a birthday party for Vice President Dan Quayle. On Thursday, he was visited at George Washington University Hospital by another Republican he served, former President Ronald Reagan.

Raised in South Carolina, Mr. Atwater rose from being a college intern on Capitol Hill for Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) to deputy political director in the Reagan White House at age 29. He had earned that post by, among other things, helping Reagan defeat Bush in his 1980 bid to become the Republican nominee.

Mr. Atwater left the Reagan White House in 1984 for a Washington consulting firm. In 1987, Bush tapped Mr. Atwater as his political director, and he later became national campaign manager.

Mr. Atwater`s political acumen went on national display in Bush`s primary campaign.

While building what he called ``a firewall of support`` for Bush in the South, Mr. Atwater said he believed his candidate had to convince voters that he was heir to Ronald Reagan and a stalwart conservative, no mean feat given Bush`s lifelong posture as a moderate.

In turning back Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, Rep. Jack Kemp of New York and a number of other GOP aspirants, Bush and his campaign manager achieved all their objectives.

It was in the general election race that Mr. Atwater gained notoriety for the negative nature of his handiwork. He transformed prison furloughs and pledging allegiance to the flag into presidential-size matters.

He believed that these issues had particular resonance with what he identified as middle-class voters. And he proved the issues could be distilled into simple images: George Bush as a crime-fighting patriot and his opponent as a shopworn liberal.

When Mr. Atwater told the campaign`s research director that he wanted

``opposition research`` on Dukakis, he reportedly gave him this instruction:

``Here`s a 3-by-5 card. We`re gonna have to use research to win this campaign. You get me the stuff to beat this little bastard and put it on this 3-by-5 card.``

Research turned up Willie Horton, a convicted murderer who had been allowed out of a Massachusetts prison under a state furlough program and had then raped a Maryland woman and stabbed her husband.

Mr. Atwater`s critics said the message conveyed was cynical and racially charged, because Horton was black and his victims white, a contention Mr. Atwater fiercely denied.

Mr. Atwater did use his Southern roots and his genuine love of music, particularly music drawn from black culture, to soften his image on race. ``My hero of all time is Otis Redding,`` he once said of the legendary black rhythm and blues singer.

Last April, he savored the release of ``Red Hot and Blue,`` a record on which Atwater sang and played guitar in the company of such blues stalwarts as guitarist B.B. King.

Mr. Atwater collapsed March 5, 1990, while giving a speech at a Washington fundraiser, and an egg-size brain tumor was found. During his illness, Mr. Atwater chose aggressive treatment to fight the cancer, including having radioactive isotopes implanted directly into the tumor.

His illness appeared to soften his political perspective, and last November he said he had become a born-again Christian. Earlier this year, in a first-person article written for Life magazine, Mr. Atwater acknowledged he was among the most ardent practitioners of negative politics.

``I used to say that the president might be kinder and gentler, but I wasn`t going to be,`` he wrote. ``How wrong I was. There is nothing more important in life than human beings.``

Mr. Atwater said he was sorry for insulting Dukakis during the 1988 campaign.

Survivors include his wife, Sally, and three young daughters: Sara Lee, Ashley Page and Sally Theodosia. Funeral services will be held Monday in his home town, Columbia, S.C. A memorial service in Washington is scheduled on Thursday.